VacationSelector
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach
The Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket, Phuket
PhuketThe Big Buddha on the hill above Phuket

Photos: Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Phuket by Mussi Katz, CC0.

Myrtle Beach or Phuket?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Myrtle Beach for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Myrtle Beach’s own page.

Choose Phuket for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Phuket’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Myrtle Beach 84, Phuket 90: Phuket leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Myrtle Beach 38, Phuket 66: Phuket leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Myrtle Beach 20, Phuket 35: Phuket leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Myrtle Beach 42, Phuket 72: Phuket leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Myrtle Beach 46, Phuket 80: Phuket leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Myrtle Beach 50, Phuket 45: Myrtle Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Myrtle Beach 80, Phuket 65: Myrtle Beach leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Myrtle Beach 18, Phuket 22: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Myrtle Beach 38, Phuket 42: Phuket leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Myrtle Beach 52, Phuket 68: Phuket leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Myrtle Beach 30, Phuket 20: Myrtle Beach leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Myrtle Beach 28, Phuket 82: Phuket leads by 54 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Myrtle Beach and Phuket.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on families and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Phuket
Best match
57match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Phuket in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
287 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Myrtle BeachPhuket

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Phuket's temperatures are measured 27 km from the centre, at Phuket Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre). Phuket: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1961-1990) normals, Phuket Airport (26.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMyrtle BeachPhuket
Official language-Thai
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Baht (THB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzABCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+7
Emergency number911Police 191, ambulance 1669, fire 199
Elevation8 m19 m
Main airportMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsPhuket International Airport (HKT)27 km from centre85 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days-

By the numbers

MeasureMyrtle BeachPhuket
City population35,68277,610
People per km²5916,468
Museums within 10 km22
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Myrtle Beach or Phuket somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.